Ex-commissioner Leaves Treatment Center

March 25, 1987|By STEVE NICHOL, Staff Writer

Former Palm Beach County Commissioner Jerry Owens, still facing drunken driving and violation of probation charges, has completed a 28-day alcohol treatment program, his lawyer and ex-wife said on Tuesday.

Jerry Owens will be living with his parents in Loxahatchee, according to his attorney, David Roth.

Deborah Owens said their child, Jerry Jr., was with Owens after his release from Lake Hospital in Lake Worth.

``He spent the night out there,`` she said.

Owens resigned Feb. 23, committing himself to the alcohol treatment program a day after he smashed a county car into the back of a van that deputies say was stopped for a red light at Forest Hill Boulevard and Congress Avenue.

It was Owens` third drunken-driving arrest in nine months.

A county judge will consider a request this morning by Roth to consolidate both the drunken-driving charge and violation of probation charges into one case before one judge, according to Assistant State Attorney Craig Salisbury.

Owens was placed on probation in December after pleading guilty to a drunken- driving charge six months earlier in Boca Raton. A drunken-driving charge from Greenacres City police was dropped at that time.

Owens could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

But his former aide, Max Weaver, said Owens appeared to be in good spirits when he visited him at the treatment center a few weeks ago.

``He seemed to be in a much better frame of mind. Very positive,`` Weaver said.

Andre Fladell, coordinator of the South County Political Cooperative, said he visited Owens about a week ago.